"After much prayer and thought and seeing National Signing Day, as well as talking to my coaches and family, I have decided to open my recruitment and de-commit from the University of Alabama,” Johnson announced on Twitter. Being respectful to all parties involved, I feel it is only fair that I make this decision as soon as possible and not delay. Although Alabama is a great program and definitely at the top of my list, I would like to keep my options open and see all the opportunities available to me.”

6-foot-5, 330-pounder told SEC Country a few months ago that some Crimson Tide fans were telling him that he needed to de-commit already because of Johnson’s interest in other schools, most notably Auburn and Georgia.

The nation's top prospect still has Alabama as his No. 1 school after recently transferring from Baton Rouge, La., to the IMG Academy. Alabama inked two elite inside linebackers in the previous class and want to add some of the nation's best outside linebackers.

“It was awesome,” Fromm told SEC Country. “He really focuses on the little things, and it was great watching his work ethic. AJ can really spin (the football).”

6-foot-3, 220-pounder also got to hang out with one of Alabama’s top quarterback targets in the 2018 class, four-star Jack West. Since committing in October, Fromm has become one of the Crimson Tide’s top recruiters.

Fromm is rated as the nation’s No. 6 pro-style quarterback in the class of 2017...

Why hasn’t the 5-star signed yet? Robertson has held off from the paperwork while trying to improve his SAT score. Stanford appears to be the school to beat, while he’s also considering UGA, Alabama, Cal and Notre Dame,

He committed to the Crimson Tide the summer before his junior year of high school but later decided to back off the pledge. Robertson still had a lot of nice things to say about Alabama this past week.

“Alabama is still pretty high up there,” Robertson said. “You can’t go wrong with Alabama. I talk to (receivers coach Billy Napier) a lot, but I haven’t got on the phone much with Coach (Nick) Saban lately. I’ve spoken to (offensive coordinator) Lane Kiffin lately, too.”

“I felt like I am a priority,” Leatherwood told SEC Country. “They see me competing and playing as a true freshman — and at many positions — if I want to come in and play (for) them because of my naturally-given tools, which give me many advantages across the offensive line.”

Those naturally-given tools include an 86-inch wingspan.

Without question, the LSU coaches took notice, too.

Leatherwood spent much of the visit speaking with coach Les Miles and offensive line coach Jeff Grimes, which affected the tackle’s original plans to see the entire campus up close.

“Actually, the facilities and the academic programs were awesome,” Leatherwood said. “I didn’t get to the see the dorms because they were a little off-campus, but I saw a virtual tour and they were way better than I expected.

“Actually, they were unbelievable. I didn’t get to see a lot of other things because I spent a lot of time with Coach Miles and Coach Grimes, but it was great.”

Leatherwood remains committed to Alabama, but he told SEC Country that he is strongly considering LSU, which is now among his top schools.

With talented QB Jake Fromm flipping his commitment from #Alabama to #Georgia, here's where the Tide might turn: http://ow.ly/Z30TX

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According to 247Sports, the top four pro-style quarterbacks have already committed to schools.

Alabama has offered No. 1 quarterback Hunter Johnson from Brownsburg, Ind, but he is committed to Clemson Alabama could take closer looks at the No. 5 and No. 6 quarterbacks. Davis Mills from Norcross, Ga., and Jake Bentley from Opelika don't have Alabama offers but are close by. Bentley is the top quarterback in the state of Alabama going into his senior season. His father is the running backs coach at South Carolina and in January, he mentioned the Gamecocks, along with Georgia, Miami and Stanford as top schools. At this point last year, Powder Springs, Ga., four-star Bailey Hockman was down to Alabama and Georgia. He committed to Georgia, but backed off after Smart's hire. His name hasn't been mentioned with Alabama much lately. Alabama offered Las Vegas dual-threat quarterback Tate Martell, the nation's top dual-threat quarterback, last year, but he has committed to Texas A&M. Tristan Gebbia, a four-star from Calabasas, Calif. (Kardashians, Bieber, Jacksons, "The Real Jimmy Hollywood", et al.), also has an Alabama offer. A couple of three-star Mississippi quarterbacks with offers to other schools, worth watching for geographic proximity, include Madison's Jack Walker and Bay St. Louis' Myles Brennan.

Linebacker Mack Wilson, a five-star Alabama signee and 6-foot-2, 220-pounder from Montgomery, Ala., revealed on Twitter that he’s been playing with a torn labrum throughout most of his high school career.

“Just found out my labrum was really torn today by Dr. Cain,” Wilson tweeted,” and it’s been torn since the 10th grade.”

“Surgery next week on my shoulder,” he added. “Pray for your boy.”

The No. 2 linebacker and No. 15 overall prospect in the Class of 2016...

Wilson said he’s missing 10 pairs of Jordan sneakers, a PlayStation 4 and $320 from his home. A police report has not been filed at time of writing.

This past month has been difficult for the Alabama signee. His good friend, Rod Scott, died in a car accident earlier this month. Wilson was also recently diagnosed with a torn labrum that requires surgery and a three-to-four month recovery.

Davis, an Alabama four-star defensive tackle signee from Meridian (Miss.) High School, spoke with SEC Country about what actually happened on Jan. 17, the day he visited Mississippi State.

There were several reports that he had flipped his commitment from Alabama to Mississippi State and several more reports stating he did not actually commit to the Bulldogs. On that day, Mississippi State head coach Dan Mullen, through his verified Twitter account, tweeted out that the Bulldogs gained a commitment. That tweet was retweeted by Davis, who changed his Twitter bio to “Committed to MSU.” Needless to say, it was a mess. Davis claimed his Twitter account was hacked on that day and maintained his commitment to Alabama, despite the appearance of his profile.

6-foot-7, 327-pounder eventually signed his letter of intent on signing day and will ultimately play for the Crimson Tide. It should be noted that Davis also signed a letter of intent with Jones Junior College. He has some academic issues he needs to work on in order to be on Alabama’s roster this fall.

Q: What actually happened on the day you visited Mississippi State? Obviously, there was some drama there with your Twitter account claiming you had flipped to Mississippi State.

Davis: I didn’t commit. I still don’t know how word got out like that. I think one guy tweeted out that I had committed to State. That one tweet went viral.

Q: Your Twitter account posted tweets saying you had flipped and the account retweeted Mullen’s message saying you flipped. Can you explain how that happened?

Davis: I don’t know what happened. I think I left my phone with one of the Mississippi State players when I was on that visit and they were posting that stuff. I don’t know. It was just crazy.

Q: Can you explain why one Mississippi State signee told me that he saw you give your commitment to the Bulldogs coaching staff?

Davis: That’s not true at all. Nope.

Q: You signed two letters of intent, one with Alabama and with Jones Junior College. Have you figured out if you are going to play at Jones?

Davis: I can’t say right now. I don’t know. I still have some work to do. I’m hoping to just go straight to Alabama.

Q: What do you need to do in order to get to Alabama?

Davis: I just have to improve my grades. I got a 19 on my ACT (he does not know what his sum score was, which is what the NCAA uses to determine eligibility). I know I need to get all A’s and B’s on my report card.

Bama has been connected to a lot of elite quarterback prospects in the Class of 2017, but the Crimson Tide are starting to run out of options.

Bailey Hockman, a four-star prospect and the No. 7 pro-style quarterback, committed Sunday to Florida State. Hockman, a lefty from Powder Springs, Ga., was once committed to Georgia but re-opened his recruitment on Dec. 14, 2015.

UGA moved on from Hockman and landed a commitment from another in-state four-star QB, Jake Fromm. The No. 3 pro-style QB in 2017, Fromm de-committed from Alabama on March 3

Saban will turn 65 in October, but told Chris Low of ESPN that he’s “not looking to get out” and plans to continue to coach “as long as [he] feels he can be effective” doing it. Still, other coaches are using the fact that he’s now the SEC’s oldest coach against him on the recruiting trail.

“It’s the first time people are starting to say to recruits, ‘He won’t be there the whole time you’re there,’ because of my age,” Saban told Low. “Does that really impact your ability to stay good? I don’t know. But if it did, it would make you say, ‘Well, what’s up with this?’ My philosophy is that I’m going to be here for as long as I feel like I can be effective, impact the players, help them be more successful in life and continue to have a successful program.”

Saban became the oldest coach in the conference in October, when South Carolina’s Steve Spurrier resigned at age 70.

“It was good,” Smith told SEC Country’s Sam Spiegelman at the Louisiana Bootleggers Invitational in Covington, La., on Sunday. “I talked to the coaches and learned more about what they are trying to do with their offense and the program.

“There really wasn’t anything different about the visit. I just talked with the coaches and broke down film.”

Honolulu-Saint Louis coach Cal Lee has plenty of good things to say about Alabama, and his star quarterback apparently feels the same way.

Tua Tagovailoa, a 6-foot-1, 210-pound quarterback from Hawaii, is in line to make his commitment known next Monday, and Alabama could be in prime position to land his verbal pledge. Crimson Tide now lead in experts' predictions on his 247Sports crystal ball.

Tagovailoa is expected to announce his choice on the 6 p.m. (local time) news on KHON. That news would come after 11 p.m. in Alabama.

He's the No. 60 overall prospect in the 247Sports composite rankings and the No. 2 dual-threat quarterback. Alabama lost its quarterback commitment for this class when Jake Fromm flipped his pledge to Georgia...

Tagovailoa told KHON that his top six schools are Alabama, Ole Miss, USC, UCLA, Texas A&M and Hawaii.

"The Southern hospitality is very great," Tagovailoa told 247Sports. "I want to look at that because that's where I'm going to be living. You have to look at the community and the people around you. I feel that's the biggest thing that was there, and the football is always going to be good at Alabama."

It's the same type of hospitality Lee felt when he took a trip to Tuscaloosa for the University of Hawaii's season opener in 2006.

Alabama landed its quarterback commitment for the class of 2017 with Honolulu, Hawaii four-star standout Tua Tagovailoa ranked No. 58 nationally and as the No. 2 dual-threat quarterback. Tagovailoa is also the top prospect in Hawaii and is the highest-rated player to ever come out of Hawaii. He goes to the same high school, Saint Louis, that produced 2014 Heisman Trophy winner Marcus Mariota...

Kiffin is visiting Calabasas (Calif.) High School and Calabasas has three of the top 30 players in the state of California in the Class of 2017. One of those players is wide receiver Keyshawn Johnson, Jr.

Tagovailoa could not be happier for Jones’ decision to become a part of the Alabama family now. As far as Tagovailoa’s commitment status to Alabama is concerned, he summed it up succinctly.

“Alabama is my home for the next three to four years,” Tagovailoa told SEC Country.The decision to add another quarterback to the 2017 class did not come as a surprise to Tagovailoa. Before he committed, the nation’s No. 2 dual-threat quarterback was notified that Alabama would be taking two this class.

“He laid out the process for me,” Baker said of Saban. “Everyone sees all the rings and everything, but he told me about the process of what makes that all happen. The players have to buy into this to make what you see on TV possible.”

“You can see people on Twitter talk about it. When I switched my commitment, I didn’t look at all of that talk. You can just tell that people were mad. My friends were telling me about some of the stuff people were saying. When I go to some of these events now, you’ll hear some people say, ‘Oh, he sucks.'”

Jones did not “suck” in the 7-on-7 tournament this past weekend. He made few mistakes and reminded SEC Country and fellow recruiting reporters of where former Crimson Tide star AJ McCarron was at this point in the career.

BEAVERTON, Ore. — At one point, Dylan Moses’ top school was Alabama. From the sounds of it, the Crimson Tide is slowly fading in Moses’ recruitment despite him set to take an official visit to Alabama in October for the Kentucky game.

Moses told SEC Country at The Opening, a premier camp for the nation’s top high school football players held at Nike world headquarters, that he is concerned about Alabama’s depth chart at linebacker.

“Alabama is great,” Moses said. “I saw that they got two more commitments (in 4-stars Markail Benton and VanDarius Cowan). It kind of has me a little iffy about it because I don’t really know how I fit inside that. I’m still trying to look at that.

“They keep telling me that they have room for me, but just looking at it, all of the linebackers they have there now — and with two more (recent) linebacker commits — they’re probably going to get some more. I’m trying to think about it.”

The 5-star linebacker from IMG Academy (Bradenton, Fla.) recently named Texas his leader, but he isn’t claiming any school on top right now because of the “confusing” and fast-changing recruiting landscape.

The top targets Bama fans should get familiar with in 2018 include: 4-stars Cam Rising (Newbury Park, Calif.), Allan Walters (Paramus, N.J.) and Jalen Mayden (Sachse, Texas). Rising and Walters currently hold offers from Alabama while Mayden doesn’t. Mayden is definitely the most intriguing option for the Crimson Tide at this point because his brother, Jared, is a freshman cornerback for Alabama. Mayden told SEC Country a few weeks ago that the Alabama offer was one that he was waiting on.

Texas tight end 3-star commit Major Tennison will visit Alabama on July 21. It’s very possible Tennison ends up flipping his commitment.

JaCoby Stevens, the nation’s No. 1 athlete, will also be on Alabama’s campus this weekend.

There are several players who could potentially commit to Alabama before the weekend is over. TE Major Tennison, DB Kyriq McDonald, junior college DB Jhavonte Dean and 2018 DB Myles Mason could potentially be a part of the Crimson Tide.

On the blog: National recruiting analysts now predicting that top UK football target Jedrick Wills will pick Alabama http://bit.ly/29R8V0x

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6-5, 315 Lafayette offensive lineman Jedrick Wills is Kentucky’s top recruiting target in the class of 2017, and Rivals.com ranks him as a five-star prospect and the No. 17 overall recruit in the country.